Working with Web 2.0 Tools in the classroom:

We have been dealing in ECO with Web Tools, the importance of integrating them in our classroom and some of their advantages and disadvantages. From my point of view, these tools are great to motivate and engage our students. We know they like working with computers and they are reluctant to work in paper and pencil activities.  What’s more, I think they are very useful to develop long term classroom projects and to encourage students to work with those topics they most like as they would have access to information they may not find at home. Anyway, I think we sometimes forget a very important point about the use of these tools in education, and this is that students need to know how to work with them because one day they will need them in their professional life and after all, that is one of the aims of education.  Some disadvantages we need to consider are that we as teachers may not be very well prepared to work with them and it is time consuming (it would be different if we would have been encouraged to work with technology during our own education. Congratulations to this subject that is opening our minds!) and that not all the schools have these resources. Apart from that, I’m totally in favour of including them in my classes. As long as we use them more often, it is less time consuming for us and it is really important to give students the chance to be creative and active in their own learning process.